1.FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an Internet telephone apparatus for making a call to a remote location at a lower rate using an Internet network.
2.BACKGROUND INFORMATION
An Internet telephone is an audio communication system utilizing the Internet which is a wide area data communication network. At present, such an Internet telephone is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-9-168033.
In the prior art example cited above, a server is provided on the Internet to control calls made by Internet telephones, in such a manner that when a user of a calling party initiates a call to a terminal of a called party, the terminal of the called party is connected to the Internet through a database to provide a telephone call between the parties.
With a conventional Internet telephone, however, the calling party must once is connected to an Internet access provider even while the called party is busy, so that the calling party must pay the telephone rate, and a connection fee to the Internet provider.
The Internet involves a variety of dedicated lines, routers and so on between the data source and the destination, where the flow of data is less smooth as the data passes through a larger number of such interventions. FIG. 6 illustrates a general topology of an Internet network. In the Internet, a nation-wide network commonly possessed by a provider may be connected to a network of another provider through a plurality of intervening providers. When connection is made through a larger number of providers, this may increase the traffic higher than the capacity of the telephone line so that data is not sufficiently transmitted in some cases. In the Internet telephone, such a situation would hinder a smooth telephone call. FIG. 7 illustrates a solution for this problem, where two access points are connected, for example, only through a provider A. With this solution, since data on the Internet is transmitted only through the provider A, the transmission of the data can be made smoother than the topology illustrated in FIG. 6.
However, in the conventional Internet telephone, the user is not allowed to set a data transmission path, so that in some cases the user is obliged to inevitably use a telephone line with much traffic.
To solve the problem mentioned above, the present invention generates data indicating whether or not the Internet telephone is used, and communicates this data, which may be included in a sub-address of an ISDN call setting message, or through an information notice between users, so that the users can smoothly utilize the Internet telephone.